A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Bent Arm and Straight Arm Forehands Both

One really wants never to change anything in tennis but if the ideas keep coming, one has to try them, no?

A snake's head may be perfectly still or slightly moving before it strikes but doesn't sloppily wave around in a fast and unnecessary loop-- take note, tennis players?

I saw two things yesterday that would have impressed anybody but a Zomblican.

The first was a tall kid hitting a million very good and utterly consistent straight arm forehands from straight down spiral preparation. Watching him, I had to question the virtue of my Double-Coin, my forehand that creates an overhead rainbow to put my hand in the exact same place as his.

Why bother with the rainbow? Why waste that energy? Did straight down placement of hand compromise the mondo that came immediately afterward as this kid, who looked to be a varsity college player, started to hit the ball with huge pace and topspin? Not that I could see.

The second thing that impressed me was my own decision to modify my upper register level bent arm backswing to pare it to bare minimum. My forehands during the senior men's carousel were better from that moment on.

First, kept opposite hand on racket just long enough to help start the unit turn and shot it at side fence to finish the job.

Bent hitting arm meanwhile led with the elbow, which is another way of saying that elbow twists up and hand turns strings down at any level one would like. Palm went from facing the net to facing the court, and this transformation was succinct and soon.

The idea that getting arm back too soon leads to awkwardness is overly prevalent in tennis, so maybe we should watch the shortstop Jose Iglesias just before he throws to first base.

Whatever he does, he doesn't use a sloppy and continuous and mono-speed loop.

And one can run-skip-move quite nicely with arm cocked close behind one. The shots were especially effective when I swooped forward to a short ball.

They were hit with added power as if the torqued bent arm was a torque wrench that added clicks through thrown elbow SIM with flip followed by torque the opposite way. (SSC-- "stretch-shorten" cycle-- may be useful as scientific terminology but as coded cue can never be good.) It's all a sidearm throw if you ask me. Arm remained bent slightly beyond contact but then utterly relaxed for long extension toward the net and a self-promise to re-read the Robert Lansdorp TP article entitled "The Three Forehand Finishes."

Note: I am ready to be humiliated by a 9-year-old at any time so long as she is good enough to earn that honor. Fifth among the 9-year-olds in Great Britain judging from Johanna Konta's upset of Garbine Muguruza on grass yesterday may now be sufficient.

[bottle]

Unnecessary: Turning Opposite Palm Down

I only came up with that idea to try to subtract one 4000 from the 10,000 hours or repetitions of Malcolm Gladwell.

Just as Gladwell rebelled against his editor father and his novelist mother to become an ad-man for 10,000, Inc., we should rebel against Gladwell to become individuated tennis players rather than faddist determinists.

Turn both palms down to give the safe sign at the plate in baseball, I thought, a primordial move with physiological root.

If I were teaching tennis to an infant, I might go the double-palmway, but as a 75-year-old, I'd rather keep my pointed left hand still like a sail or twiddle my fingers in an effort to distract my 9-year-old faux granddaughter Cate from her next forehand.

I also like the idea of pulling handle to inside a little as I turn the hitting palm down but am not sure that I want to think about this any more.

The left hand becomes a shield, the right hand a snake head poised to strike.

[bottle]

Forehand: Back to the Drawing Board

Throwing the elbow works well for me. But with how much of a racket head lag? Much less than Jack Sock. And I prefer far less complex preparation than his.

Something far less complex than Roger Federer too. Roger after all gets racket tip up. Then he lowers it toward right fence to close it.

And he hasn't even extended his arm to tap a dog with his racket yet.

Me, I'm getting plenty old. And I've got to play against my faux granddaughter Cate again this summer when we go to England for her tenth birthday.

I want to be ready.

Ready in the sense of having racket poised in the pose of Federer when he just closed it but with less myelinated fuss to get there than his.

This course of action predicts and yet departs from the backswing of five-time U.S. Davis Cup captain Ed Faulkner, i.e., is close to the forehand backswing he taught in the book ED FAULKNER'S TENNIS.

One turns racket at its elevated level from ready position with both hands on the racket and a good unit turn.

Influenced by the spectacle of Evert, Austin and Connors however, I separate the hands early and complete the pivot (by time of bounce) through opposite hand pointing across. Both palms have turned down at the same time.

Call all of this two counts or one count, I don't care. Call the sequential inversion of elbow and mondo that comes next one count or half a count or Jeffrey Counts, I don't care.

This plan has created a very economical stroke involving torque of the bent arm at contact. Yes, the hips fire then too but both things happen at once and sum together in this view.

[bottle]

Nine-year-olds Tennis in Great Britain as I Know it

Maxine, with all of her other interests including theater is just at the stage in tennis where she hits the ball back, not a bad talent at all.

Maxine is a 12-year-old granddaughter of Hope, as American as they come, one of three sisters all of whom, as somebody pronounced yesterday at the huge high school graduation party of the eldest, are "terrifyingly beautiful."

Hope's fourth granddaughter Cate, 9, over for the big party, is fabulously attractive too, but it took Maxine and me about five minutes before we could return any of her ground strokes.

Cate, from Berkshire on the edge of London (pronounced Barkshire) has only produced two teams ever to make the nationals, and Cate's was the second. In the nationals, they lost a few, won a few (singles and doubles both) and finished fifth.

I'm telling you, Cate, though very small, has had a Russian coach and hits a ton of pace and topspin and keeps the ball deep and does everything she does very well. I could only get her with a slice serve out wide because of her size.

In the doubles tournament scheduled at the Pier Park for this afternoon, I have told myself that I must shorten my forehands, i.e., hit McEnruefuls.

But other matches already have been played. Cate and her mother Kristen played Maxine and her mother Melissa, and briefly fell behind, at which point there were tears in Cate's eyes and she started screaming at her mother or talking to her mother depending on who tells the story.

Actually, what Kristen told me was that Cate told her that she was not good enough to be at the net and to come back to the baseline. Having faced Melissa's forehand at the net, I could sympathize. On some days net is where I want to be against Melissa, on others not.

As small girls, both Kristen and Melissa had lessons from Ken Angell, the Detroit area teaching pro who was burnt up by his disturbed son along with the disturbed son (the whole family was burnt up) as Steve reported in this forum, exactly as in the famous crescendo in a Doors song. (One way or another Jim Morrison wrote about THEM.)

Well, Kristen retreated to the baseline, and she and Cate prevailed.

Later, in volleyball, some of the more regional Michiganders started mocking Cate's "accent." Is it voleyball they said or volleyball?

And Cate created a scandal when she said to a teammate, "Just let me serve so we can win this point."

I side with Cate on that one and think that voleyball is just fine and also think she was right in tennis to bring her mudder back.

Never before have I played serious tennis against somebody who does handstands and cartwheels between points.

[bottle]

Ok…so what are we talking about here? Generally speaking though, all shots whether they are performed on the golf course, on the tennis court or in bed for that matter share some things in common. To be successful you must follow through. It is through repetition that some semblance of control is attained.

I would say that any shot on the golf course where one can find the ball is a "good" shot. In tennis, any shot in the court is a "good" shot. In bed what is the criteria for a "good" shot? Not falling out of bed?

Both tennis and golf are games entirely of energy and balance. Can we say the same of other "games"?

When in bed I am always thinking in terms of a man and a woman. Mixed doubles. But when it comes to boys and girls there is only one thing that is for certain. The battle of the sexes will never be won…there is too much fraternization with the "enemy".

Does this answer the question? Does it even address the question?

Maybe not but it's pretty good. Especially on the question of follow-through.

Think about this on the most elementary level without which no other level matters, and don't consciously think too deeply, to follow your earlier advice. If proper drilling of follow-through is essential, does one follow through enough when one mimes in bed or anyplace else? One wouldn't want to be miming (drilling?) decels.

This is a game where every answer is another question. You are right about that, too.

[don_budge]

Shots…generally speaking

So...should one mime shots in bed or stop that?

Ok…so what are we talking about here? Generally speaking though, all shots whether they are performed on the golf course, on the tennis court or in bed for that matter share some things in common. To be successful you must follow through. It is through repetition that some semblance of control is attained.

I would say that any shot on the golf course where one can find the ball is a "good" shot. In tennis, any shot in the court is a "good" shot. In bed what is the criteria for a "good" shot? Not falling out of bed?

Both tennis and golf are games entirely of energy and balance. Can we say the same of other "games"?

When in bed I am always thinking in terms of a man and a woman. Mixed doubles. But when it comes to boys and girls there is only one thing that is for certain. The battle of the sexes will never be won…there is too much fraternization with the "enemy".

Does this answer the question? Does it even address the question?

[bottle]

Another thing that I have learned is one can never think too deeply about things. Explore the minutia and connect the dots... Evaluate each shot individually for a split second…then onwards.

So...should one mime shots in bed or stop that?

[bottle]

Beachball

Will look into those other videos.

But my McEnrueful is a good because extremely simple shot.

It's really Doug King's beachball shot where you feel up to the ball and then give it a huge shove.

But Doug may have a loop first in mind. Me, I only want a straight wristed hand rise both up and back a few inches then change directions after perceptible pause as in a volley.

It's body tilt from the hips with straight back (I mean spine) that administers mild topspin on the shot from core body rotation.

To learn the shoulders swing you take a pin from the fifth hole on a golf course and thread it behind you through your elbows. Or follow the example of Mr.
Wadden in the first of the three videos where pin is in front of his neck.

That gives the whole hitting area the look of a shallow U. You get the hand by the navel and crank. For me this works best with a neutral hitting step. The followthrough is apt to be abbreviated too.

McEnroe-- he's a martinet, upright. Not me. I'm slightly bent from the hips like an oarsman (or Rory McIlroy) at least on this one shot.

The first time I ever tried this as a passing shot against an extremely knowledgeable player, he just stood there like a toadstool as the ball whizzed past. It wasn't that he had slow reflexes. He was just amazed by the unusual looking shot and was trying to figure it out.

"I was just trying to figure out what you were doing."

[don_budge]

Fundamentally speaking…and The Minutia of Details

But if I've learned anything from all of my experimentation, Steve, it is not to be overly entranced when some current idea works briefly-- once-- immediately-- for a clean winner.


For a Hoganfore, one shouldn't take from this intriguing video you put up in a plodding, lugubrious way where you do everything in sequence exactly as the man says

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY

Another thing that I have learned is one can never think too deeply about things. Explore the minutia and connect the dots. I get so obsessed with connecting those damned impossible dots sometimes. I can understand how Ferdinand Celine was writing in such a crazy manner. Nothing is ever handed to you. Then go to work…and repeat. Evaluate each shot individually for a split second…then onwards. Eventually though…if you are teaching you must arrive at some conclusions in order to communicate something concrete to the student in terms of something fundamentally solid from which to begin.

Go to 2.20 of this video. Look how he is demonstrating how his left hand is "helping" his shoulder to rotate. Is it possible that in a Fedefore that you also use the left hand in a similar manner? I constantly remind my students to keep both hands on the racquet as long as possible. All shots are some variation of two handedness.

I appreciate you taking this up with this particular video and hoping you will also look at the other two with regard to their content. It's also rather amusing to watch your antics with your "McEnrueful" after I went through all of those contortions hitting and learning the continental game some time ago. But I felt that this stuff (these three videos) was really relevant regards to the two rather "unorthodox" backswings in the other thread. It's good stuff. Really, really good stuff.

[bottle]

Ten Thousand Miles

You just put in your ten thousand miles and you won't even need a tennis racket. You can use a rod stuck through a tennis ball instead. If it weren't good
Nick Bollettieri wouldn't tell you so (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CcCQyj4fc).

[bottle]

Progress Report

Most of my shots worked, Steve. It was just one of those days. So I hit all Hoganfores and one Double-Coin (no Federfores or McEnruefuls) with all of these forehands successful.

But if I've learned anything from all of my experimentation, Steve, it is not to be overly entranced when some current idea works briefly-- once-- immediately-- for a clean winner.

Repeatability, as you have stressed, is what working on some innovation or production of stroke has to be about.

Still, I think that concentration on ratio applies across a spectrum of shots.

I mentioned 2 to 1 or 1 to 1/2 in connection with a Federfore, where the "1/2" referred to straightening of arm from the elbow, i.e., "tapping the dog."

In a dimwitted or gullible fore, tapping the dog with one's racket can be accomplished with a straightened and stiffened arm, an arm with a hard-on-- ask Demi Moore. I'm sure that Grigor wanted to go and see her right after he read my last post-- he just needed the suggestion.

For a Hoganfore, one shouldn't rob in a plodding, lugubrious way from this intriguing video you put up. One doesn't want to start with bending back wrist or give any credence to the sequence outlined here, not in tennis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY).

The point is to be selective and use the upper arm better by twisting it axle-like the way Roger Federer already does near the beginning of his backswing to lift the racket tip up.

But if you are willing to then do something that Roger does not do, viz., lift elbow up a little, you can extend the EAR (external arm rotation) over the two steps combined in one. (Elbow can rise as humerus twists. It is physical possibility.)

You start tip up first but the whole beat feels like cocking your arm to skip a rock.

The half-beat that follows is of the same duration as Roger's straightening of his arm but is about inversion of the bent arm instead-- to maintain and increase torsion for a big release.

Mondo is the transition between this half-count and the rest of the stroke which is too fast to think about.

P.S. Today I may get to hit with a 9-year-old whose two-person team recently finished fifth in the nationals of Great Britain. She has a Russian coach, a male with some relation to Olga Morisova, who supposedly first noticed Andy Murray. Wonder how I'll do or as my older sister wonders, will the girl progress? I'll try to get the full story.

[bottle]

What gets me is the complete denial that experimentation in either tennis or golf is ever going to produce anything good. I encountered it at a recent college reunion (Hope's, not my own). A retired English professor from Indiana University there played piano for five hundred persons and was well into his golf. He and I could discuss the decline in Walt Whitman's poetry as Whitman got older, but when it came to golf, there was nothing but noir in this professor's view. He read Golf Magazine, etc., but indicated that nothing he ever read had done him any good and never would.

And it won't.

I LOVE these experiments. And your crack about yelling "Fore" is right on. I hit a few home runs yesterday-- with the Hoganfore-- and may do the same today in actual competition. Or not be able to hit the ball at all. It just won't matter. If something like that happens I'll switch to Double-Coins or Federfores or McEnruefuls-- the one that works best since I can only do round-robin for 45 minutes today. One great thing about a carousel-- you can come or leave at any time.

However-- the shot, the Hoganfore-- is really promising. I wouldn't have put up a post about it if it wasn't. Oh sorry, I don't want to sound like Nick Bollettieri selling a rod stuck through a ball. But on the adjacent court, as I did my self-feed was my friend if I dare say that JAY, a very active Detroit teaching pro with a bunch of little kids. He would slowly pitch a ball so that it bounced and dribbled along the court in who knew what direction. The kids all had to line themselves up with the path of the already dribbling and bouncing ball so that it went through all of their legs, and the first kid as it went under had to run to the end of the group so that it rolled through his legs a second time.

A very charming sight in my view. And in contrast to what I was doing with all of my thoughts about skipping stones and golf and tennis technique.

Well, I'm a verbal learner, as Vic Braden correctly said. "It just will take you longer." And I am a verbal teacher, too. Still, I think by now I ought to be able to learn silently from my home runs.

Great hearing from you. Thanks so much.

P.S. Grigor Dimitrov should take his dimifore to Demi Moore. Ernst Gulbis should take his gulbifore to Domenic Thiem. The famous coach who handles them both should line them up side by side and say, "Ernst, your forehand is too ugly. And Domenic, your forehand is too beautiful. And your backhand is too beautiful by far. So Ernst, you need to beautify your forehand, just a little. And Domenic, you need to uglify your backhand, just a little."

There were eight-oared crews like Domenic's backhand in 1959. Princeton was one of them. We beat the crap out of them. This year, though, 2o15, they're best on the East Coast. They only beat us by two tenths of a second, twice, but in the national collegiate championship it was more like 5 seconds. How did they improve that much, both from 1959 and from earlier in this season? Uglification.

[don_budge]

"The Hoganfore"…equal parts Ben Hogan…Roger Federer…Frankie, Puntzi and bottle

"The Hoganfore"

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY)

"Hoganfore" as the name for a forehand in tennis taken from Ben Hogan's use of right arm in his golf swing does not sound nearly as good as "Federfore"; it just however could be a better shot for one of Roger's imitators of whom there are a lot.

Yes…what's in a name a great man once asked. Was it April? Come she will. But anyways your name for the namesake forehand of Ben Hogan is ironically apropos as you unload that right arm slamming into your ball just yell "fore"!

I submitted those videos as I watched the two convoluted forehands in "pre-op" mode. I thought it would be a good idea to submit some good fundamental knowledge about "swings"…even though it wasn't a tennis video. As a matter of fact I have been deeply engrossed in my golf swing. Trying to find it after several years of inactivity and accumulated rust. This most excellent video struck me tennis-wise as well as all of this talk about shoulder rotation drives me batty. I hate speaking in terms like these…my own subjective dislike. But at the same time I really enjoy reading those that are comfortable with those terms…you, tennis_chiro and 10splayer to name a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDGR_iDojWc

At the same time…take a moment to reflect upon this move by Ben Hogan as well. It about how to create angle in the loaded wrists…another feat that both he and Roger share in their respective endeavors. See if you can some how incorporate this into your swing analysis as well. I think that you will like this very much. Roger gets so much angle in his loaded wrist…this may just be what sets it apart from the others. Well that and his ability to "dance" with the tennis ball.

In my parallel universe of golf that I am simultaneously traveling in at this point in time and space…I went out yesterday to "find" my swing on the course for the first time. I have been rehearsing these moves (the three submitted videos) and it was time for a test run. Sort of like what you are doing with your tennis. I went out with only a four wood, and irons thru number six. I birdied the first par 5 with a stiffed nine iron from 125 yards (it felt like warm butter on a hot knife) and sank the two meter putt. Then I bogied the long par 4 number two as I failed to get it up and down…barely. Two routine pars on number 3 and number 4.

The swing thoughts were more in line with the other two videos than the one that you cited…in fact I would say the thought that predominately was on my mind was the second video that I referenced here. The one about the angle…the steeper angle.

I have issues with my right handed golf swing because of my left handed tennis. In my golf swing my left hand tends to play the role of a backhand and takes precedence over my right hand releasing. Between the three videos I am trying to undo what took me thirteen years to create. I hope to get it done in a couple of hours. See me change. Maybe I should practice right handed forehands ala bottleesque.

Thanks for the heart warming references to chocolate labs. I lost one three days before Christmas…the saddest day of my life. Then I found one the day before my birthday in March. It's interesting that you pick up on the minutia where many get lost in the flood. You are most welcome…my friend…bottle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQESBJB-vyQ

This third video is equally relevant to your "Hoganfore" as it is to my golf swing. Having fun with tennis is a lost art as well. Having fun in golf is equally tough. The experimenting is a large part of the fun aspect…which is an important aspect of life. It would be an interesting world if professional tennis teachers were required to achieve single digit handicap status in golf instead of the accreditation process that is in play now.

[bottle]

Hoganfore

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY)

"Hoganfore" as the name for a forehand in tennis taken from Ben Hogan's use of right arm in his golf swing does not sound nearly as good as "Federfore"; it just however could be a better shot for one of Roger's imitators of whom there are a lot.

My advice after first self-feed is to bring up racket tip a little farther to the right of body than perhaps one did if one had a Federfore.

This emphasizes EAR (external arm rotation) over bending of the arm for the same task.

Next I think one should go ahead and use Vic Braden's device for closing the racket extra amount, i.e., lift elbow a bit.

One will sidearm the elbow to maintain and increase the torsion in it, so lifting elbow a little will make this act feel more natural.

The idea builds on a Steve Navarro post in the Forehand Takeback thread.

My subsequent post there probably offers more detail than here.

One think I immediately like about the Hoganfore is that it restores classical arm straightening as a device for strings to stay longer on the ball.

At the same time, the danger of straining one's extensors seems removed just as in a perfect golf stroke.

The right arm straightening is relaxed and triggered by IAR (internal arm rotation) just as in Hogan's swing.

[bottle]

Dimifore and Gulbifore

A similar ungainly use of early straightened arm for a paper cutter fall?